The 11th National People's Congress (Chinese: 第十一届全国人民代表大会) met for a 5-year term, from 2008 to 2013. It held five annual two week sessions during in this period. There were 2,987 deputies elected to the 11th Congress in 2008, with 2972 in office at the end of the term (2012).[1]

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The first session of the 11th Congress sat from March 5 to March 18, 2008.[2] It re-elected Hu Jintao as President and Wen Jiabao as Premier. Xi Jinping was elected Vice-President. The State Council, China's cabinet, went through major restructuring.

The second session of the 11th Congress sat from March 5 to March 13, 2009.[2] This congress tackled issues such as the worsening global financial crisis, attempted to introduce a new social welfare system, as well as checks and balances on public officials.

1.
10th National People's Congress
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The 10th National Peoples Congress was in session from 2003 to 2008. It held five sessions in this period. There are 2,984 deputies to this Congress, the Congress held its 1st annual meeting from March 5—18,2003 at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The Congress held its 2nd annual meeting from March 5—14,2004 at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, the Congress held its 3rd annual meeting from March 5—14,2005 at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The Congress held its 4th annual meeting from March 5—15,2006 at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, the Congress held its 5th annual meeting from March 5 to March 15,2007 at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing

2.
12th National People's Congress
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The 12th National Peoples Congress was elected from October 2012 to February 2013 and will be in session from 2013 to 2018. It is scheduled to hold five plenary sessions in this period, the first plenary session was held on March 2013. All top national posts were up for election and were filled, the second plenary session was held on March 2014

3.
National People's Congress
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The National Peoples Congress is the national legislature of the Peoples Republic of China. With 2,987 members in 2013, it is the largest parliamentary body in the world, the NPC is elected for a term of five years. It holds annual sessions every spring, usually lasting from 10 to 14 days, the fourth session of the 12th NPC was held from March 5 to March 16,2016. In theory, the NPC is the highest organ of power in China. However, in practice it usually acts as a stamp for decisions already made by the states executive organs. One of its members, Hu Xiaoyan, told the BBC in 2009 that she has no power to help her constituents and she was quoted as saying, As a parliamentary representative, I dont have any real power. In 2014, the party pledged to unswervingly adhere to the leadership of Chinese Communist Party. Since the 1990s, the NPC has become a forum for mediating policy differences between different parts of the Party, the government, and groups of society, there are mainly four functions and powers of the NPC,1. To amend the Constitution and oversee its enforcement Only the NPC has the power to amend the Constitution, Amendments to the Constitution must be proposed by the NPC Standing Committee or 1/5 or more of the NPC deputies. In order for the Amendments to become effective, they must be passed by 2/3 majority vote of all deputies, to enact and amend basic law governing criminal offences, civil affairs, state organs and other matters 3. To elect and appoint members to the state organs The NPC elects the Chairman, Vice Chairmen, Secretary-General. It also elects the President of the Peoples Republic of China, NPC also appoints the Premier of the State Council and many other crucial officials to the central state organs. The NPC also has the power to remove the officials from the office. The drafting process of NPC legislation is governed by the Organic Law of the NPC and it begins with a small group, often of outside experts, who begin a draft. Over time, this draft is considered by larger and larger groups, by the time the full NPC or NPCSC meets to consider the legislation, the major substantive elements of the draft legislation have largely been agreed to. However, minor wording changes to the draft are often made at this stage, the process ends with a formal vote by the Standing Committee of the NPC or by the NPC in a plenary session. The NPC mainly exists to give sanction to decisions already made at the highest levels of the government. However, it is not completely without influence and it functions as a forum in which legislative proposals are drafted and debated with input from different parts of the government and outside technical experts

4.
Hu Jintao
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Hu Jintao is a Chinese politician who was the paramount leader of China from 2002 to 2012. He was a member of the 14th to 17th CPC Politburo Standing Committee, Hu is the first leader of the Communist Party without any significant revolutionary credentials. As such, his rise to the leadership represented Chinas transition of leadership from establishment communists to younger, during his term in office, Hu reintroduced state control in some sectors of the economy that were relaxed by the previous administration, and was conservative with political reforms. Along with his colleague Premier Wen Jiabao, Hu presided over nearly a decade of consistent economic growth, meanwhile, Hu followed conservative policies on China politically, cracking down on social disturbances, ethnic minority protests, and dissident figures. On foreign policy, Hu advocated for Chinas peaceful development, pursuing soft power in international relations, throughout Hus tenure, Chinas influence in Africa, Latin America, and other developing regions increased. Hu possessed a low-key and reserved leadership style and his tenure was characterized by collective leadership and consensus-based rule. These traits made Hu a rather unknown figure in the public eye, Hu retired in 2013 and was succeeded by Xi Jinping. Hu Jintao was born on 21 December 1942 in Taizhou, Jiangsu province and his branch of the family migrated from Jixi County, Anhui to Taizhou during his grandfathers generation. Though his father owned a tea trading business in Taizhou. His mother was a teacher and died when he was 7, Hus father was denounced during the Cultural Revolution, an event that apparently had a deep effect upon Hu, who diligently tried to clear his fathers name. During his time at Tsinghua, he met his wife Liu Yongqing, from 1969 to 1974, he worked for Sinohydro Engineering Bureau as an engineer. In 1973, Hu was transferred to the Construction Department of Gansu as a secretary, the next year he was promoted to vice senior chief. In 1980, Deng Xiaoping implemented the Four Transformations program, which aimed to produce communist leaders who were more revolutionary, younger, more knowledgeable, another protégé of Song, Wen Jiabao, also became prominent at the same time. In 1982, Hu was promoted to the position of Communist Youth League Gansu Branch Secretary and was appointed as the director of the All-China Youth Federation. His mentor Song Ping was transferred to Beijing as Minister of Organization of the Communist Party of China, with the support of Hu Yaobang and Deng Xiaoping, Hu was assured of a bright future in the party. At Song Pings suggestion, in 1982 central CPC authorities invited Hu to Beijing to study at the Central Party School, soon after, he was transferred to Beijing and appointed as secretariat of the Communist Youth League Central Committee. Two years later Hu was promoted to First Secretary of CY Central, during his term in the Youth League, Hu escorted Hu Yaobang, who was CPC General Secretary then, in visits around the country. Hu Yaobang, himself a veteran coming from the Youth League, in 1985, then-Communist Party General Secretary Hu Yaobang pushed for Hu Jintao to be transferred to Guizhou as the provincial Committee Secretary of Communist Party of China

5.
Communist Party of China
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The Communist Party of China is the founding and ruling political party of the Peoples Republic of China. It was founded in 1921, chiefly by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao, the CPC is currently the worlds second largest political party with a membership of 88.76 million as of 2016. It also controls the worlds largest armed force, the Peoples Liberation Army, the highest body of the CPC is the National Congress, convened every fifth year. The partys leader holds the offices of General Secretary, Chairman of the Central Military Commission, through these posts the party leader is the countrys paramount leader. The current party leader is Xi Jinping, elected at the 18th National Congress, the CPC is still committed to communist thought and continues to participate in the International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties each year. The official explanation for Chinas economic reforms is that the country is in the stage of socialism. The planned economy established under Mao Zedong was replaced by the socialist market economy, the CPC has its origins in the May Fourth Movement of 1919, during which radical ideologies like Marxism and anarchism gained traction among Chinese intellectuals. Other influences stemming from the Bolshevik revolution and Marxist theory inspired the Communist Party of China, Li Dazhao was the first leading Chinese intellectual who publicly supported Leninism and world revolution. In contrast to Chen Duxiu, Li did not renounce participation in the affairs of the Republic of China, both of them regarded the October Revolution in Russia as groundbreaking, believing it to herald a new era for oppressed countries everywhere. The CPC was modeled on Vladimir Lenins theory of a vanguard party, Study circles were, according to Cai Hesen, the rudiments. Several study circles were established during the New Culture Movement, the founding National Congress of the CPC was held on 23–31 July 1921. With only 50 members in the beginning of 1921, the CPC organization, while it was originally planned to be held in Shanghai French Concession, police officers interrupted the meeting on 3 July. Because of that, the congress was moved to a tourist boat on South Lake in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, only 12 delegates attended the congress, with neither Li nor Chen being able to attend. Chen sent a representative to attend the congress. The resolutions of the called for the establishment of a communist party. The communists dominated the left wing of the KMT, a party organized on Leninist lines, when KMT leader Sun Yat-sen died in March 1925, he was succeeded by a rightist, Chiang Kai-shek, who initiated moves to marginalize the position of the communists. Fresh from the success of the Northern Expedition to overthrow the warlords, Chiang Kai-shek turned on the communists, ignoring the orders of the Wuhan-based KMT government, he marched on Shanghai, a city controlled by communist militias. Although the communists welcomed Chiangs arrival, he turned on them, Chiangs army then marched on Wuhan, but was prevented from taking the city by CPC General Ye Ting and his troops

6.
United Front (PRC)
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The United Front in the Peoples Republic of China is a popular front of the legally permitted parties in the country, led by the Communist Party of China. Besides the CPC, it includes eight minor parties and the All-China Federation of Industry and it is managed by the United Front Work Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Its current department head is Sun Chunlan, the United Front is represented together with other mass organizations such as trade unions, womens and youth organizations, minorities etc. in the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference. The United Front holds no real power independent of the CPC and its leaders are mostly selected by the Communist Party of China, or are themselves CPC members. The member parties which exist are almost completely subservient to the CPC, thus, China is a de facto one-party state. However, the United Front parties have representation in the National Peoples Congress. Seymour, Chinas Satellite Parties, Routledge, ISBN 978-0873324120 Official website of the United Front Work Department, Central Committee of CPC

7.
Wu Bangguo
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Wu Bangguo is a retired high-ranking politician in the Peoples Republic of China. He was the Chairman and Party secretary of the Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress from 2003 to 2013 and he ranked second in official rankings of state and party leaders of China. A native of Anhui, Wu is an engineer by profession. Wu was born in Feidong County, Anhui and he entered Tsinghua University in 1960, majoring in electron tube engineering at the Department of Radio Electronics, where he graduated in 1967. He subsequently was employed as a worker and technician at Shanghais No.3 Electronic Tube Factory and he would eventually go on to lead the factory as its party secretary. In 1978 he was assigned to become the deputy manager of Shanghai Electronic Elements Company, between 1981 and 1983 he worked as the deputy secretary of Shanghai Meters, Instruments and Telecommunications Bureau. Wus work in electronics companies earned him a tenure in the upper echelons of power. Between 1985 and 1991, Wu was elevated to Deputy secretary of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee, and subsequently as CPC party chief of Shanghai, the citys first-in-charge. As Shanghais political and economic stature grew due to reforms, Wu gained a seat on the Politburo of the Communist Party of China, Chinas ruling council. He continued as Vice-Premier under Zhu Rongji, and served in the role until the 2003 National Peoples Congress. At the 16th Party Congress in November 2002, Wu entered the highest power elite in the country, at the 11th National Peoples Congress, he was re-elected as Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee on 15 March 2008. In his capacity as NPCSC chair, Wu delivers an annual address each year at the National Peoples Congress sessions in March and these speeches have always noted that China will not adopt multiparty democracy, separation of powers, or a federal system. He also stated that the Central Government supported Hong Kongs development of democracy, although the remarks were left open to interpretation, they generated significant controversy in Hong Kong, with pro-democracy politicians calling it a challenge on the autonomy of the territory. On 16 July 2012, Wu attended the ceremony of Shenzhou 9. Shanghai clique Wu Bangguo biography at China Vitae

8.
Traditional Chinese characters
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Traditional Chinese characters are Chinese characters in any character set that does not contain newly created characters or character substitutions performed after 1946. They are most commonly the characters in the character sets of Taiwan, of Hong Kong. Currently, a number of overseas Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between both sets. In contrast, simplified Chinese characters are used in mainland China, Singapore, the debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters has been a long-running issue among Chinese communities. Although simplified characters are taught and endorsed by the government of Mainland China, Traditional characters are used informally in regions in China primarily in handwriting and also used for inscriptions and religious text. They are often retained in logos or graphics to evoke yesteryear, nonetheless, the vast majority of media and communications in China is dominated by simplified characters. Taiwan has never adopted Simplified Chinese characters since it is ruled by the Republic of China, the use of simplified characters in official documents is even prohibited by the government in Taiwan. Simplified characters are not well understood in general, although some stroke simplifications that have incorporated into Simplified Chinese are in common use in handwriting. For example, while the name of Taiwan is written as 臺灣, similarly, in Hong Kong and Macau, Traditional Chinese has been the legal written form since colonial times. In recent years, because of the influx of mainland Chinese tourists, today, even government websites use simplified Chinese, as they answer to the Beijing government. This has led to concerns by residents to protect their local heritage. In Southeast Asia, the Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative regarding simplification, while major public universities are teaching simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications like the Chinese Commercial News, World News, and United Daily News still use traditional characters, on the other hand, the Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified. Aside from local newspapers, magazines from Hong Kong, such as the Yazhou Zhoukan, are found in some bookstores. In case of film or television subtitles on DVD, the Chinese dub that is used in Philippines is the same as the one used in Taiwan and this is because the DVDs belongs to DVD Region Code 3. Hence, most of the subtitles are in Traditional Characters, overseas Chinese in the United States have long used traditional characters. A major influx of Chinese immigrants to the United States occurred during the half of the 19th century. Therefore, the majority of Chinese language signage in the United States, including street signs, Traditional Chinese characters are called several different names within the Chinese-speaking world

9.
Simplified Chinese characters
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Simplified Chinese characters are standardized Chinese characters prescribed in the Table of General Standard Chinese Characters for use in mainland China. Along with traditional Chinese characters, it is one of the two character sets of the contemporary Chinese written language. The government of the Peoples Republic of China in mainland China has promoted them for use in printing since the 1950s and 1960s in an attempt to increase literacy and they are officially used in the Peoples Republic of China and Singapore. Traditional Chinese characters are used in Hong Kong, Macau. Overseas Chinese communities generally tend to use traditional characters, Simplified Chinese characters may be referred to by their official name above or colloquially. Strictly, the latter refers to simplifications of character structure or body, character forms that have existed for thousands of years alongside regular, Simplified character forms were created by decreasing the number of strokes and simplifying the forms of a sizable proportion of traditional Chinese characters. Some simplifications were based on popular cursive forms embodying graphic or phonetic simplifications of the traditional forms, some characters were simplified by applying regular rules, for example, by replacing all occurrences of a certain component with a simplified version of the component. Variant characters with the pronunciation and identical meaning were reduced to a single standardized character. Finally, many characters were left untouched by simplification, and are identical between the traditional and simplified Chinese orthographies. Some simplified characters are very dissimilar to and unpredictably different from traditional characters and this often leads opponents not well-versed in the method of simplification to conclude that the overall process of character simplification is also arbitrary. In reality, the methods and rules of simplification are few, on the other hand, proponents of simplification often flaunt a few choice simplified characters as ingenious inventions, when in fact these have existed for hundreds of years as ancient variants. However, the Chinese government never officially dropped its goal of further simplification in the future, in August 2009, the PRC began collecting public comments for a modified list of simplified characters. The new Table of General Standard Chinese Characters consisting of 8,105 characters was promulgated by the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China on June 5,2013, cursive written text almost always includes character simplification. Simplified forms used in print have always existed, they date back to as early as the Qin dynasty, One of the earliest proponents of character simplification was Lubi Kui, who proposed in 1909 that simplified characters should be used in education. In the years following the May Fourth Movement in 1919, many anti-imperialist Chinese intellectuals sought ways to modernise China, Traditional culture and values such as Confucianism were challenged. Soon, people in the Movement started to cite the traditional Chinese writing system as an obstacle in modernising China and it was suggested that the Chinese writing system should be either simplified or completely abolished. Fu Sinian, a leader of the May Fourth Movement, called Chinese characters the writing of ox-demons, lu Xun, a renowned Chinese author in the 20th century, stated that, If Chinese characters are not destroyed, then China will die. Recent commentators have claimed that Chinese characters were blamed for the problems in China during that time

10.
Standard Chinese
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Its pronunciation is based on the Beijing dialect, its vocabulary on the Mandarin dialects, and its grammar is based on written vernacular Chinese. Like other varieties of Chinese, Standard Chinese is a language with topic-prominent organization. It has more initial consonants but fewer vowels, final consonants, Standard Chinese is an analytic language, though with many compound words. There exist two standardised forms of the language, namely Putonghua in Mainland China and Guoyu in Taiwan, aside from a number of differences in pronunciation and vocabulary, Putonghua is written using simplified Chinese characters, while Guoyu is written using traditional Chinese characters. There are many characters that are identical between the two systems, in English, the governments of China and Hong Kong use Putonghua, Putonghua Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, and Mandarin, while those of Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia, use Mandarin. The name Putonghua also has a long, albeit unofficial, history and it was used as early as 1906 in writings by Zhu Wenxiong to differentiate a modern, standard Chinese from classical Chinese and other varieties of Chinese. For some linguists of the early 20th century, the Putonghua, or common tongue/speech, was different from the Guoyu. The former was a prestige variety, while the latter was the legal standard. Based on common understandings of the time, the two were, in fact, different, Guoyu was understood as formal vernacular Chinese, which is close to classical Chinese. By contrast, Putonghua was called the speech of the modern man. The use of the term Putonghua by left-leaning intellectuals such as Qu Qiubai, prior to this, the government used both terms interchangeably. In Taiwan, Guoyu continues to be the term for Standard Chinese. The term Putonghua, on the contrary, implies nothing more than the notion of a lingua franca, Huayu, or language of the Chinese nation, originally simply meant Chinese language, and was used in overseas communities to contrast Chinese with foreign languages. Over time, the desire to standardise the variety of Chinese spoken in these communities led to the adoption of the name Huayu to refer to Mandarin and it also incorporates the notion that Mandarin is usually not the national or common language of the areas in which overseas Chinese live. The term Mandarin is a translation of Guānhuà, which referred to the lingua franca of the late Chinese empire, in English, Mandarin may refer to the standard language, the dialect group as a whole, or to historic forms such as the late Imperial lingua franca. The name Modern Standard Mandarin is sometimes used by linguists who wish to distinguish the current state of the language from other northern. Chinese has long had considerable variation, hence prestige dialects have always existed. Confucius, for example, used yǎyán rather than colloquial regional dialects, rime books, which were written since the Northern and Southern dynasties, may also have reflected one or more systems of standard pronunciation during those times

11.
Pinyin
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Pinyin, or Hànyǔ Pīnyīn, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese in mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. It is often used to teach Standard Chinese, which is written using Chinese characters. The system includes four diacritics denoting tones, Pinyin without tone marks is used to spell Chinese names and words in languages written with the Latin alphabet, and also in certain computer input methods to enter Chinese characters. The pinyin system was developed in the 1950s by many linguists, including Zhou Youguang and it was published by the Chinese government in 1958 and revised several times. The International Organization for Standardization adopted pinyin as a standard in 1982. The system was adopted as the standard in Taiwan in 2009. The word Hànyǔ means the language of the Han people. In 1605, the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci published Xizi Qiji in Beijing and this was the first book to use the Roman alphabet to write the Chinese language. Twenty years later, another Jesuit in China, Nicolas Trigault, neither book had much immediate impact on the way in which Chinese thought about their writing system, and the romanizations they described were intended more for Westerners than for the Chinese. One of the earliest Chinese thinkers to relate Western alphabets to Chinese was late Ming to early Qing Dynasty scholar-official, the first late Qing reformer to propose that China adopt a system of spelling was Song Shu. A student of the great scholars Yu Yue and Zhang Taiyan, Song had been to Japan and observed the effect of the kana syllabaries. This galvanized him into activity on a number of fronts, one of the most important being reform of the script, while Song did not himself actually create a system for spelling Sinitic languages, his discussion proved fertile and led to a proliferation of schemes for phonetic scripts. The Wade–Giles system was produced by Thomas Wade in 1859, and it was popular and used in English-language publications outside China until 1979. This Sin Wenz or New Writing was much more sophisticated than earlier alphabets. In 1940, several members attended a Border Region Sin Wenz Society convention. Mao Zedong and Zhu De, head of the army, both contributed their calligraphy for the masthead of the Sin Wenz Societys new journal. Outside the CCP, other prominent supporters included Sun Yat-sens son, Sun Fo, Cai Yuanpei, the countrys most prestigious educator, Tao Xingzhi, an educational reformer. Over thirty journals soon appeared written in Sin Wenz, plus large numbers of translations, biographies, some contemporary Chinese literature, and a spectrum of textbooks

12.
Politics of China
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The politics of the Peoples Republic of China takes places in a framework of a semi-presidential socialist republic run by a single party, the Communist Party of China. State power within the Peoples Republic of China is exercised through the Communist Party, the Communist Party of China uses Internal Reference to manage and monitor internal disagreements among the people of Peoples Republic of China. Peoples Congress members at the county level are elected by voters and these county level Peoples Congresses have the responsibility of oversight of local government, and elect members to the Provincial Peoples Congress. The Provincial Peoples Congress in turn elects members to the National Peoples Congress that meets each year in March in Beijing, the ruling Communist Party committee at each level plays a large role in the selection of appropriate candidates for election to the local congress and to the higher levels. The President of China is the head of state, serving as the ceremonial figurehead under National Peoples Congress. The Premier of China is the head of government, presiding over the State Council composed of four vice premiers, as a one-party state, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China holds ultimate power and authority over state and government. Chinas population, geographical vastness, and social diversity frustrate attempts to rule from Beijing, political power has become much less personal and more institutionally based than it was during the first forty years of the PRC. For example, Deng Xiaoping was never the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, President, or Premier of China, today the authority of Chinas leaders is much more tied to their institutional base. Central government leaders must increasingly build consensus for new policies among party members, local and regional leaders, influential non-party members, however, control is often maintained over the larger group through control of information. The Chinese Communist Party considers China to be in the stages of socialism. Many Chinese and foreign observers see the PRC as in transition from a system of ownership to one in which private ownership plays an increasingly important role. The more than 80 million-member Communist Party of China continues to dominate government, in periods of relative liberalisation, the influence of people and groups outside the formal party structure has tended to increase, particularly in the economic realm. Under the command system, every state owned enterprise was required to have a party committee. The introduction of the market means that economic institutions now exist in which the party has limited or no power. Nevertheless, in all institutions in the PRC, the party committees at all levels maintain a powerful. The CPCs most important responsibility comes in the selection and promotion of personnel and they also see that party and state policy guidance is followed and that non-party members do not create autonomous organizations that could challenge party rule. Particularly important are the small groups which coordinate activities of different agencies. Constitutionally, the partys highest body is the Party Congress, which is supposed to meet at least once every 5 years, meetings were irregular before the Cultural Revolution but have been periodic since then

13.
Generations of Chinese leadership
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Because both the Communist Party of China and the Peoples Liberation Army promote according to seniority, it is possible to discern distinct generations of Chinese leadership. In official discourse, each group of leadership is identified with an extension of the ideology of the party. Historians have studied various periods in the development of the government of the Peoples Republic of China by reference to these generations, while in English the chronological leadership groups are commonly referred to as generations of Chinese leadership, there is no exact equivalent expression in Chinese. The usual term in official discourse for such a group is a leadership collective, thus, for example, the first generation of leaders identified below are labelled as the first generation leadership collective. In official discourse, they are not viewed as leaders of the state. The revision of party history into generations helped to secure Jiangs position as core, xi Jinping did continue this practice until October 2016 when the 6th Plenary of the 18th Central Committee named him as the core leader in a document. Thus, the first generation, from 1949 to 1976, consisted of Mao Zedong as core, along with Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, Liu Shaoqi, Chen Yun, Peng Dehuai, and later Lin Biao and the Gang of Four. These were the leaders that founded the Peoples Republic of China after the Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War and they were born between 1886 and 1907, although the Gang of Four were a distinct subgroup born 1914 to 1935. Most were born before the demise of the Qing Dynasty and thus lived to see both the birth and, on the mainland, the end of the Republic of China, one characteristic of these leaders were that they tended to be both political and military leaders. Most had some education outside China, and their formative experiences included the Long March, the Chinese Civil War, the guiding political ideology from the first generations were general principles of Marxism and Mao Zedong Thought. Liu, then the President, was removed from his party position in 1966, placed under house arrest in 1967, with the demise of Liu, Mao promoted Lin Biao as his deputy, and the Gang of Four to fill the role of his trusted henchmen. Lin fell out of favour, however, and died in 1971 while attempting to escape to the Soviet Union and their demise came shortly afterwards in a political coup managed by what become the second generation of leaders. Of the other members identified above, Chen Yun was sidelined from the early 1960s, lost his party position in 1969, but survived to play an influential role in the second generation of leadership. Peng Dehuai was denounced in 1959, made a return to government in 1965. The death of Mao, Zhou and Zhu in 1976, and soon afterwards the coup resulted in the arrest of the Gang of Four. During this period the most power and influence had a group of old party veterans, known as the Eight Elders, whose members were Li Xiannian and Chen Yun. All of them had more than 40 years of political experience, thus, in official discourse, the second generation of leadership lasted from 1976 to 1992. The official discourse of the Communist Party today identifies Deng Xiaoping as the core of this second generation, instead, the formal party leaders during this time were, successively, Hua Guofeng, Hu Yaobang, Zhao Ziyang and Jiang Zemin

14.
Xi Jinping
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Xi Jinping is the current General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, President of the Peoples Republic of China, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission. As General Secretary, Xi holds a seat on the Politburo Standing Committee. The son of Communist veteran Xi Zhongxun, Xi Jinping rose through the ranks politically in Chinas coastal provinces, Xi was governor of Fujian from 1999 to 2002, and governor, then party secretary of neighboring Zhejiang province from 2002 to 2007. Following the dismissal of Chen Liangyu, Xi was transferred to Shanghai as party secretary for a period in 2007. Xi joined the Politburo Standing Committee and central secretariat in October 2007, Xi was vice-president from 2008 to 2013 and Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission from 2010 to 2012. Since assuming power, Xi has attempted to legitimize the authority of the Communist Party by introducing far-ranging measures to enforce party discipline and he initiated an unprecedented and far-reaching campaign against corruption, leading to the downfall of prominent incumbent and retired officials. Xi has also imposed further restrictions over civil society and ideological discourse, Xi Jinping was born in Beijing on 15 June 1953. After the founding of the Communist state in 1949, Xis father held a series of posts, including propaganda chief, vice-premier, Xis father is from Fuping County, Shaanxi, and Xi could further trace his patrilineal descent from Xiying in Dengzhou, Henan. He is the son of Xi Zhongxun and his wife Qi Xin. When Xi was age 10, his father was purged from the Party and sent to work in a factory in Luoyang, Henan. In May 1966, Xis secondary education was cut short by the Cultural Revolution, Xi was age 15 when his father was jailed in 1968 during the Cultural Revolution. Without the protection of his father, Xi was sent to work in Yanchuan County, Shaanxi and he later became the Party branch secretary of the production team, leaving that post in 1975. When asked about this experience later by Chinese state television, Xi recalled, and when the ideals of the Cultural Revolution could not be realised, it proved an illusion. From 1979 to 1982, Xi served as secretary for his fathers former subordinate Geng Biao and this gained Xi some military background. In 1985, as part of a Chinese delegation to study American agriculture, he visited the town of Muscatine and this trip, and his stay with an American family, has been considered influential in his views on the United States. Xi joined the Communist Youth League in 1971 and the Communist Party of China in 1974, in 1982, he was sent to Zhengding County in Hebei as deputy Party Secretary of Zhengding County. He was promoted in 1983 to Secretary, becoming the top official of the county, Xi subsequently served in four provinces during his regional political career, Hebei, Fujian, Zhejiang, and Shanghai. Xi held posts in the Fuzhou Municipal Party Committee and became the president of the Party School in Fuzhou in 1990, in 1997, Xi was named an alternate member of the 15th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China

15.
Li Keqiang Government
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The Li Keqiang Government is the incumbent State Council of the Peoples Republic of China. Premier Li Keqiang took office on 15 March 2013 and it succeeded the Wen Jiabao government. It was appointed by the National Peoples Congress, in the 12th National Peoples Congress 1st meeting, Li Keqiang was appointed to replace Wen Jiabao as Premier of the Peoples Republic of China, Chinas head of government. According to the Constitution of the Peoples Republic of China, the Premier nominates the Vice Premiers, the nominations was confirmed by the 2013 National Peoples Congress. Ministry-level Ministry-level Sub-ministry-level Ministry-level Ministry-level Ministry-level Sub-ministry-level Sub-ministry-level Xi–Li Administration Wen Jiabao Government

16.
Paramount leader
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In modern Chinese politics, the paramount leader of the Communist Party of China and the State is an informal term that refers to the most prominent political leader in the Peoples Republic of China. The paramount leader is not a formal position nor an office unto itself, there has been significant overlap between paramount leader status and leadership core status, though they are separate concepts. Hence Xi Jinping is considered to have become paramount leader in November 2012 upon his becoming General Secretary, Chairman Mao Zedong was the undisputed ruler of Communist China beginning in 1949. Beginning in the 1980s, the leadership experimented with a quasi-separation of powers, whereby the offices of General Secretary, President, for example, in 1985, the General Secretary was Hu Yaobang, the President was Li Xiannian, and the Premier was Zhao Ziyang. However, Deng Xiaoping was still recognized as the core of the leadership during this period, both Hu and Zhao fell out of favour in the late 1980s, but Deng was able to retain ultimate political control. There has also been an emphasis on collective leadership, whereby the top leader is a first among equals style figure. This was particularly apparent during the tenure of Hu Jintao, when Jiang left the offices of General Secretary and President in 2002 and 2003, respectively, he held onto the position of Chairman of the Central Military Commission. Military power had always been an important facet in the exercise of power in Communist-ruled China. Thus between 2002 and 2004, when Jiang finally stepped down from his last formal post, it was ambiguous who the paramount leader was at the time, Hu Jintao held the same trio of positions during his years in power. These bodies were tasked with establishing the general direction for national security as well as the agenda for economic reform. Both groups are headed by General Secretary

17.
Li Keqiang
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Li Keqiang is the current Premier of the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China. An economist by training, Li is Chinas head of government as well as one of the figures behind Chinese economic policy. He is also the member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China. Li is a part of the fifth generation of Chinese leadership. Li was named the Worlds 12th Most Powerful Person by the Forbes list of The Worlds Most Powerful People in 2015 and 2016, Li rose through the ranks through his involvement in the Communist Youth League. From 1998 to 2004, Li served as the Governor of Henan, from 2004 to 2007 he served as the Party Secretary of Liaoning, the top political office in the province. Given his Youth League experience, Li has generally been considered an ally of former leader Hu Jintao. Li assumed the post of Premier in 2013, and has facilitated the Chinese governments shifting of priorities from export-led growth to a focus on internal consumption. Li has also been a force behind the implementation of the comprehensively deepening reforms announced in the fall of 2013. Li was born on 1 July 1955 in Hefei, the capital and his father was a local official in Anhui. He was awarded the honour of Outstanding Individual in the Study of Mao Zedong Thought during this time and he earned a PhD in economics in 1995, and the prominent economist Li Yining was his doctoral advisor. His doctoral dissertation was awarded the Sun Yefang Prize, Chinas highest prize in economics, in 1980, Li became the Communist Youth League secretary at Peking University. Li became the organizations First Secretary in 1993 and served until 1998 and he is a representative member of the first generation to have risen from the CYL leadership. Li became the youngest Chinese provincial governor in June 1998 when he was appointed governor of Henan at the age of 43, according to provincial officials working with him at the time, Li refused to participate in any banquets or large fancy events not related to government activities. During his time as governor, a sense of his bad luck grew due to the occurrence of three major fires in the province. Li is known to be outspoken and led development in Henan. Li did not spend time pursuing superficial projects and he trekked through all regions of the province trying to search for a comprehensive solution to its growing problems. Henan jumped in national GDP rankings from 28th in the early 1990s to 18th in 2004, however, his government was relatively ineffective at curbing the HIV/AIDS epidemic that was affecting the rural areas of the province

18.
Li Zhanshu
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Li Zhanshu is a Chinese politician and the current Director of the General Office of the Communist Party of China and the chief of the General Office of the National Security Commission. He is also a member of the 18th Politburo of the Communist Party of China, previously, Li served as the Governor of Heilongjiang province, the Communist Party Secretary of Guizhou province, and Party Secretary of Xian. Li was born in Pingshan County, Hebei province in 1950 and he became a member of the Communist Party of China in 1975. In 1980, Li studied night school at the Hebei Normal University, after graduating, he was promoted to Party Secretary of Wuji County. In 1998, Li was transferred to Shaanxi province to serve on its party leadership council, beginning in January 2002, Li became the Party Secretary of Xian. In May, he took on the role of deputy party chief of Shaanxi province. During his term in Xian, Li was known to have set the goal for Xian to become the best city in the western interior, in December 2003, Li became Deputy Party Secretary of Heilongjiang, and assumed the post of Vice Governor about a year later. At the time, outside observers classified Li as a member of the Tuanpai, on December 25,2007, then Governor Zhang Zuoji resigned, and Li took over as acting Governor, confirmed in January 2008. In August 2010, Li became the Party Secretary of Guizhou province, taking on his first role in the top office of a province. At the time, Li was not yet a member of the Central Committee. In July 2012, Li was transferred to Beijing to serve as the deputy director of the General Office of the Communist Party of China. He assumed office as Director of the General Office two months later, three months later, Li was also named Secretary of the Work Committee for Organs Directly Reporting to the Central Committee. Additionally, as was customary of the office chief, Li was also named a Secretary of the Central Secretariat. In 2013, Li was also named chief of the General Office of the newly formed National Security Commission, for example, in 2015 Li was sent as a special representative of Xi Jinping to meet with Vladimir Putin in Moscow. During the 2015 Moscow Victory Day Parade held in Moscow, Li was a member of the Chinese delegation, Li was known to have accompanied Xi on the Presidents various meetings with foreign guests, including on Xis 2015 state visit to the United States. Li was an member of the 16th and 17th Central Committees of the Communist Party of China and is a full member of the 18th Central Committee. Lis great-uncle Li Zaiwen served as Vice Governor of Shandong province

19.
Wang Yang (politician)
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Wang Yang is a high-ranking Chinese politician. He is one of the four Vice Premiers of China in Premier Li Keqiangs Government, until January 2013, he served as the Communist Party Secretary of Guangdong, the southern Chinese provinces top office. He served as the party secretary of Chongqing, an interior municipality, first as the holder of an important regional post, and now as a vice premier, Wang also holds a seat on the Politburo of the Communist Party of China, the countrys ruling council. He is widely considered to be one of the most strongly liberal members of the Chinese elite, advocating for economic, Wang was born in Suzhou, Anhui, to an ordinary urban working-class family. His father was a manual labourer, between 1972 and 1976, he worked as a food processing factory hand before being promoted to supervisor. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1975 and he subsequently joined the local Party School as an instructor, before going on to study political economics at the dawn of Deng Xiaopings economic reforms at the Central Party School in 1979. He returned to his hometown as a party policy instructor before joining the local Communist Youth League organization – where he would ascend to the organization by 1984. He then moved on to work as the Deputy Director and Director of the Anhui Provincial Sports Bureau until 1988 and his first tenure with civil administration was in Tongling, Anhui, beginning in 1988. He would rise to become the provincial Governors assistant the following year, Wang served as the Party Committee Secretary in Chongqing, a western interior municipality, from 2005 to 2007. Wangs track record in Chongqing earned him attention, for his work of bringing a geographically remote. In Chongqing, Wang won praise for handling a sensitive urban demolition case and he was also the pioneer of media reforms in the municipality. In 2007 Wang was succeeded as Chongqing party secretary by Bo Xilai, after taking Wangs place, Bo orchestrated a sweeping campaign against alleged local gangsters. As part of a reshuffle of regional leaders, Wang Yang was slated to become Party Committee Secretary of Guangdong after the 17th Party Congress. He took on the post formally in November 2007, as the post was considered one of the most important regional leadership offices in China, he also earned a seat on the Communist Partys Politburo, the countrys second-highest ruling council. In Guangdong, Wang increasingly branded himself as a bold reformer and he was instrumental in pushing Guangdong province, already dubbed Chinas breeding ground of reform, towards even greater economic and political freedoms. Additionally, Wang sought to diversify the economy away from manufacturing. Wangs unique leadership style set him apart from normally colourless and risk-averse provincial administrators who parrot the party line and he was often compared to Bo Xilai by political observers, as both Wang and Bo were seen as rising stars of Chinese politics vying for top office. Both held important regional offices that could be used as testing grounds for policies that could eventually be implemented nationally, amid the global financial crisis of 2008, Guangdong faced a mass wave of bankruptcies of small to medium-sized enterprises

20.
Elections in China
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Governors, mayors, and heads of counties, districts, townships and towns are in turn elected by the respective local Peoples Congresses. Presidents of peoples courts and chief procurators of peoples procuratorates are elected by the respective local Peoples Congresses above the county level, the President and the State Council are elected by the National Peoples Congress. Peoples Congresses of cities that are not divided into districts, counties, city districts, towns, townships, additionally, village committee members and chairpersons are directly elected. Local Peoples Congresses have the authority to recall the heads and deputy heads of government at the provincial level. The list of names and basic details is published by electorate, the number of candidates for an election should be 50% to 100% larger than the number of seats, voting is to be done by secret ballot, and voters are theoretically entitled to recall elections. Electoral districts at the level are composed of 200–300 voters but sometimes up to 1000. Villages have been traditionally the lowest level of government in Chinas complicated hierarchy of governance, many of these elections were successful, involving candidate debates, formal platforms, and the initiation of secret ballot boxes. The suffrage was universal, with all citizens above age 18 having the right to vote, such an election comprises usually over no more than 2000 voters, and the first-past-the-post system is used in determining the winner, with no restriction on political affiliation. The elections, held three years, are always supervised by a higher level of government, usually by a County Government. Under the Organic Law of Village Committees, all of Chinas approximately 1 million villages are expected to hold competitive, a 1998 revision to the law called for improvements in the nominating process and enhanced transparency in village committee administration. The revised law also explicitly transferred the power to nominate candidates to villagers themselves, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, as of 2003 the majority of provinces had carried out at least four or five rounds of village elections. According to BBC News, state media reports on vote buying. Some townships and urban areas also have experimented with direct elections of government leaders. Peoples Congresses of provinces, directly controlled municipalities, and cities divided into districts are elected by the Peoples Congress of the level immediately below. The Local Peoples Congress at each administrative level—other than the level in rural areas. The National Peoples Congress has 2987 members, elected for five year terms, the size of each college of delegates is related to the number of electors in the constituency. 36 deputies are elected in Hong Kong, the Premier is elected by the NPC on the nomination of the President. Other members of the State Council are elected by the NPC on the nomination of the Premier, other members of the Central Military Commission are elected by the NPC on the nomination of the Chairman of the Central Military Commission

21.
History of the Communist Party of China
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This article details the history of the Communist Party of China. Marxist ideas started to spread widely in China after the 1919 May Fourth Movement, in June 1920, Comintern agent Grigori Voitinsky was sent to China, and met Li Dazhao and other reformers. He financed the founding of the Socialist Youth Corps, the Communist Party of China was initially founded by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao in the French concession of Shanghai in 1921 as a study society and an informal network. The birth of the party was declared here in a boat on South Lake and it is therefore considered by the Chinese to be one of the most important historical places of the revolution. The formal and unified name Zhōngguó Gòngchǎn Dǎng was adopted and all names of communist groups were dropped. The key players were Li Dazhao, Chen Duxiu, Chen Gongbo, Tan Pingshan, Zhang Guotao, He Mengxiong, Mao Zedong was present at the first congress as one of two delegates from a Hunan communist group. Other attendees included Dong Biwu, Li Hanjun, Li Da, Chen Tanqiu, Liu Renjing, Zhou Fohai, He Shuheng, Deng Enming, notably absent at this early point were future leaders Li Lisan and Qu Qiubai. According to Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao, Cai Heshen and Gao Yuhan opposed the motion, whereupon Maring invoked the authority of the Comintern, under the guidance of the Comintern, the party was reorganized along Leninist lines in 1923, in preparation for the Northern Expedition. However, the nascent party was not held in regard, Karl Radek, one of the five founding leaders of the Comintern. Mikhail Markovich Borodin negotiated with Sun Yat-sen and Wang Jingwei the 1923 KMT reorganization, Borodin and General Vasilii Blyukher worked with Chiang Kai-shek to found the Whampoa Military Academy. And, it was the CPCs reliance on the leadership of the Comintern that was the first indication that the 1923-27 First United Front was fragile. The death of Sun Yat-sen in 1925 created great uncertainty regarding who would lead the party, despite the tensions, the Northern Expedition led by Kuomintang and participated by CPC gained some quick successes in overthrowing the warlord government. In 1927, as the Northern Expedition approached Shanghai, the Kuomintang leadership split, the Left Kuomintang at Wuhan kept the alliance with the Communists. Chiang Kai-shek at Nanking grew increasingly hostile to them and launched a campaign against them and this happened after the capture of Shanghai, which occurred with the Communists and Kuomintang still in alliance. André Malrauxs novel, Mans Fate, is based on these events, as Chiang Kai-shek consolidated his power, various revolts continued, and Communist armed forces created a number of Soviet Areas. The largest of these was led by Zhu De and Mao Zedong, a number of military campaigns from KMT army failed, but meantime the party leadership were driven out of Shanghai and moved to Maos base, sidelining him. Chiang Kai-shek launched a campaign which succeeded. The CPC had to give up their bases and started the Long March to search for a new base, during the Long March, the party leadership re-examined its policy and blamed their failure on the CPC military leader Otto Braun, a German sent by Comintern

22.
Constitution of the Communist Party of China
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The Party Constitution currently in force was adopted at the Twelfth National Congress of the CPC in September 1982. The organizational principle that drives the system of the PRC is democratic centralism. Within the system, the democratic feature demands participation and expression of opinion on key issues from members at all levels of party organization. It depends on a constant process of consultation and investigation, at the same time, the centralist feature requires that subordinate organizational levels follow the dictates of superior levels. Once the debate has reached the highest level and decisions concerning policy have been made, charter of the Workers Party of Korea This article incorporates public domain material from the Library of Congress Country Studies website http, //lcweb2. loc. gov/frd/cs/

23.
Organization of the Communist Party of China
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The organization of the Communist Party of China is based upon the Leninist idea of democratic centralism. It has been the policy since the 8th Central Committee to democratize the CPC. The meaning of democracy in CPC parlance has its basis in Vladimir Lenins concept of democratic centralism, however, with its rise to power, members began to demand the democratization of the party. Second, the principle of democratic centralism was defined as democracy under the guidance of centralism, third, all the business of the 8th Central Committee was made public. Fourth, there should be no idolatry, fifth, the CPC should have regular deputies to Party congresses. Sixth, a strict and effective supervision mechanism within the CPC should be established, seventh, the CPC should explore fixed terms of appointment. Eighth, the CPC should protect and expand the rights of members. However, these points were not implemented under Mao Zedong, in most parts because of the Cultural Revolution in which the CPC returned to the norm of issuing policy on the basis of centralism. However, with the end of the Cultural Revolution and the death of Mao Zedong, the 3rd Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee was the first to dwell on these issues. In practice this was even worse because executive committees at all levels concentrated all power. He then concluded that because of the leadership system thought. The 6th Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee endorsed these views and this stance was mentioned again in the Political Report to the 13th National Congress, in which it was stated that developing democracy within the party was a feasible project to develop socialism. The 14th Plenary Session of the 14th Central Committee became the CPCs first endorsement of developing intra-party democracy so as to develop peoples democracy and this line has continued to this day. The Political Report to the 16th National Congress stated that strengthening the character of the party was a life. The party has made it clear, with announcements from both party and state organs, that the policy of strengthening the democratic character will continue. The National Congress is the supreme organ, and is held every fifth year. According to the constitution, a congress may not be postponed except under extraordinary circumstances. A congress may be held before the date if the Central Committee so decides

24.
National Congress of the Communist Party of China
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The National Congress of the Communist Party of China is a party congress that is held every five years. The National Congress is theoretically the highest body within the Communist Party of China, since 1987 the National Congress has been held in the months of October or November. The venue for the event, beginning in 1956, is the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, in the past two decades the National Congress of the CPC has been pivotal at least as a symbolic part of leadership changes, and therefore has gained international media attention. In addition, as people at the top level of the party retire, there is room for members of the party to move up one level. Because of the structure of the party and the existence of mandatory retirement ages, cadres who are not promoted at a party congress are likely to face the end of their political careers. In addition to making changes, the Congress also reviews and changes, if necessary, the Partys Constitution, and selects the Central Committee. Each five-year cycle of the National Peoples Congress also has a series of plenums of the Central Committee which since the mid-1990s have been more or less regularly once every year. Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba. Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, election of the delegates to the 18th National Congress of CPC. china. org. cn. Chinas Party Congress, Power, Legitimacy, and Institutional Manipulation, chinas Party Congress, Power, Legitimacy, and Institutional Manipulation

25.
Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
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The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China is a political body that comprises the top leaders of the Communist Party of China. It is currently composed of 205 full members and 171 alternate members, members are elected once every five years by the National Congress of the Communist Party of China. The Central Committee is, formally, the partys highest organ of authority when the National Congress is not in session and it also oversees work of various powerful national organs of the party. The Committee convenes at least once a year at a plenary session, the Committee operates, however, on the principle of democratic centralism, i. e. once a decision is made, the entire body speaks with one voice. The role of the Central Committee has varied throughout history, nonetheless, Central Committee plenums function as venues whereby policy is discussed, fine-tuned, and publicly released in the form of resolutions or decisions. The Central Committee is therefore technically the partys highest organ of authority when the National Congress is not in session. The Central Committee must also be convened to prepare for a National Congress, for example, to determine its dates, delegate selection, agenda. The Central Committee has the power to elect the General Secretary and the members of the Politburo, its Standing Committee, and the Central Military Commission. These elections take place in the form of votes, i. e. there is only one candidate. In some instances write-in candidates may also be allowed, the Central Committee also confirms membership of the Secretariat, the organ in charge of executing party policy, whose membership is determined through nomination by the Politburo. The Central Committees role has varied throughout history and it was founded in 1927 as a successor organization to the Central Executive Committee, a group of party leaders charged with executing party work during the pre-revolutionary days of the CPC. Over the next decades it served to confirm the party leadership lineup and legitimize military, strategic. In practice, power was concentrated in a group of military and political leaders. Although the Central Committee was required to convene at least once a year, it did not convene at all in 1951–53,1960, 1963–65, and 1967. Mao did not hold power over the Central Committee, as evidenced by the debates surrounding the policies of the Great Leap Forward. Mao faced some opposition at the 11th Plenum but ultimately most delegates were goaded into ratifying Maos decisions, many members were politically disgraced or purged thereafter. The Committee was then convened again in October 1968 to ratify the decision to then head of state Liu Shaoqi from the Party. At the 12th plenum, less than half the members actually attended, in a letter to Mao evaluating the members of the Central Committee at the time, Kang Sheng wrote that some 70% of CC members were considered traitors, spies, or otherwise politically unreliable

26.
General Secretary of the Communist Party of China
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The officeholder is usually considered the paramount leader of China. According to the Constitution, the General Secretary serves as an ex member of the Politburo Standing Committee. The current General Secretary is Xi Jinping, who took office on 15 November 2012, as China is a de facto one-party state, the General Secretary holds ultimate power and authority over state and government. However, the men who have held the post have held far less power than Chairman Mao Zedong, since the mid-1990s, the General Secretary has traditionally also held the post of President of the PRC. While the presidency is nominally a ceremonial post, it is customary for the General Secretary to assume the presidency to confirm his status as de jure head of state. These bodies were tasked with establishing the general direction for national security as well as the agenda for economic reform. Both groups are headed by the General Secretary, that the power of the General Secretary has become more concentrated

27.
Politburo of the Communist Party of China
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Unlike politburos of other Communist parties, power within the politburo is centralized in the Politburo Standing Committee. The Politburo is nominally elected by the Central Committee, in addition, some Politburo members hold powerful regional positions. How the Politburo works internally is unclear, but it appears that the full Politburo meets once a month and this is believed to be much more infrequent than the former Soviet Politburo had met. The agenda for the meetings appears to be controlled by the General Secretary, the Politburo was eclipsed by the Secretariat of the Communist Party of China Central Committee in the early 1980s under Hu Yaobang, but has re-emerged as a dominant force after Hus ousting in 1987. The 18th Politburo was elected at the 1st Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee on November 15,2012, the 9th Politburo was elected at the 1st Plenary Session of the 9th Central Committee on April 28,1969, consisting of 21 members and 4 alternate members. There have been no alternate members since, miller, China Leadership Monitor No.9 www. nodulo. org Pictures of the members

28.
Secretariat of the Communist Party of China
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The Secretariat of the Communist Party of China Central Committee is a body serving the Politburo of the Communist Party of China and its Standing Committee. The Secretariat is mainly responsible for carrying out routine operations of the Politburo and it is empowered by the Politburo to make routine day-to-day decisions on issues of concern in accordance to the decisions of the Politburo, but it must consult the Politburo on substantive matters. The Secretariat was set up in January 1934 and it is nominally headed by General Secretary, though the position of General Secretary was not always one and the same as the top party leader. Secretaries of the Secretariat are considered some of the most important political positions in the Communist Party, by protocol, its members are ranked above the Vice Chairmen of the National Peoples Congress as well as State Councilors. The General Secretary presides over the work of the Secretariat, the Secretariat of the Central Committee was formed in January 1934 at the 5th Plenary Session of the 6th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, which was held in Shanghai. In 1956, the party created the position of the General Secretary to head its Secretariat, the position is not that of the foremost leader in the party, which at the time was the Chairman of the Central Committee. Rather, the General Secretary was in charge of carrying out the work of the Communist Partys Politburo. Its inaugural General Secretary was Deng Xiaoping, with prominent political figures such as Peng Zhen, during the Cultural Revolution, the post of General Secretary as well as the Secretariat itself completely ceased to function. Beginning at the 9th Party Congress, party documents made no mention of the Secretariat, since its reinstatement, the composition of the Secretariat has varied between 6 and 12 members. Wan Li, Hu Qili, Hu Jintao, Zeng Qinghong, Xi Jinping, the Secretaries of the Secretariat are ranked highly in the order of precedence among party and state leaders. The Secretaries rank under the Politburo, but ranks above the Vice-Chairpersons of the National Peoples Congress